Chittenango High School grad's family grows amid earthquake devastation in Haiti

View full sizeCourtesy of Gwenn MangineGwenn Mangine works with residents at a tent city near Jacmel, Haiti.

Chittenango, NY -- The earthquake that killed thousands of Haitians and created millions of refugees one year ago today couldn’t derail the mission of a family that moved to the impoverished island nation to serve its orphaned and abandoned children.

Through the seasonal rains and hurricanes that turned refugee camps into pits of mud and rivers of refuse that spread disease, Nick and Gwenn Mangine have battled with a passion that runs deeper than their own short history with their adopted community.

“We didn’t come down here as earthquake relief workers,” Gwenn Mangine wrote last month on her blog, The Life and Times of the Mangine Many. “We didn’t come down as hurricane relief workers, or as a part of teams helping with cholera. We came down here to build a family and to be a part of God’s redemption plan for a few children in Haiti.”

The couple moved with their three children to the port city of Jacmel, Haiti, about four hours south of Port-au-Prince, in April 2009. Their aim was to serve through Joy in Hope, a nondenominational ministry that pairs orphaned children with families willing to raise them in Haiti.

Nick Mangine, 30, graduated from Chittenango High School in 1998 before attending North Carolina State University, where he met his wife, Gwenn. They had been living in Haiti for seven months when the earthquake struck. In an instant, the family’s mission of long-term care suddenly became one of meeting immediate needs — food, water, medical assistance and shelter.

They shared their situation with friends, family and supporters through their blog, Facebook and Twitter, sending pictures and stories from Jacmel to readers around the world. The posts are filled with emotions; they express gratitude for the initial wave of international aid that brought food, water and supplies and also reflect the couple’s struggle with the growing needs of a displaced population in the quake’s aftermath.

Photo courtesy Mangine familyNick and Gwenn Mangine worship at a church service. During their time in Haiti, the family has grown to include 11 children.

“The problem is that the initial push made by the international community wasn’t enough to meet the depth of need that we’re left with here in Haiti — a million people living under tents and tarps and sheets in the middle of fields, in the middle of highways, pretty much everywhere,” Gwenn Mangine wrote in March.

Instead of being overwhelmed by the magnitude of the need, the missionaries turned their attention to connecting Haitians living in Jacmel’s tent cities with items and services they needed.

The Mangines began by making lists of babies that needed diapers, people who needed medical care and adults who needed jobs. The Mangines took the lists out into the community to determine what services could be offered by local and foreign relief organizations and what needs could be met with the help of donors from around the world — including local churches such as Crossroads Community Church, in Chittenango, and Randallsville New Life Church, in Hamilton.

“Our goal is to connect families with the services already being offered,” Gwenn Mangine wrote in a letter to supporters in April. “The way I see it, if we all settle on one little corner of a neighborhood, we can start to impact change.”

Staying positive was difficult. Residents of the refugee camps rejoiced at the arrival of tents from foreign aid organizations. But without ventilation, the structures reached temperatures of 130 degrees. Seasonal rains brought mud and standing water that led to malaria and typhoid.

Gwenn Mangine said she struggled as she distributed diapers to the camps where diarrhea and scabies were rampant.

“I have lived in Haiti for over a year now and I’ve seen a lot of need,” she wrote. “I’ve lived here through the earthquake and all the terror that brought. And everyone just keeps saying that the real problem is going to be that rainy season is coming and to expect outbreaks of disease.

“People are sick in these camps,” she wrote in May. “People are dying. The conditions are worse than ever. The crisis is not over.”

Other local connections

Back home with a mission: Three members of the United Church of DeRuyter arrived in Haiti for a 10-day mission trip just hours before the earthquake hit. Their stories about the Haitian people struck a chord with Central New Yorkers, and the church sent back $15,000 in food, water and basic supplies.

Adoption complete: The Rumo family of Cicero finalized the adoption of three brothers from Haiti — Kenzie, Kenson and Kenley — just before Christmas. The Cicero family was working to adopt the boys at the time of the earthquake and waited for hours before they heard the boys were alive.

Rebuilding church by hand: Thirty members of the Abundant Life Christian Center in Cicero traveled to Port-au-Prince in March to help demolish an earthquake-damaged church in order to help it rebuild. “They had to do all the demolition work by hand without the use of any heavy machinery, and they worked in 95-degree heat,” said Jon Shaw, a church member speaking for the group.

Regular trips to Haiti: In the weeks after the earthquake, Cazenovia resident Bob Hood visited the village of Thibeau in northern Haiti, which suffered no direct damage, but experienced an increase in refugees relocating from Port-au-Prince. The village’s St. Ives parish has been “twinned” with St. James Roman Catholic Church in Cazenovia for eight years. Hood returned several times throughout the year and continues to seek volunteers.

The desperation was tempered by slow progress. The Mangine family fostered an infant boy named Edwinson, who was struggling to regain his health in the unsanitary conditions of the camps. Photographs show the child growing from feverish and malnourished to healthy and smiling.

“Every day, moms tell me about how their kids have diarrhea and have stopped eating,” she wrote. “And I thought about my most recent rant about MY kids having an outbreak of dysentery. Yeah, I have diapers. And wipes. And a mop. And bleach. And clean water. And a roof over my head. And a mosquito net and a fan. I am going to shut my complaining mouth now.”

The missionaries also witnessed the community’s resiliency after the winds and rains of Hurricane Tomas ravaged Pinchinat, a city of 4,500 refugees created on a soccer field in Jacmel. The camp rallied, building decorative rock gardens in place of the tents that were destroyed.

“Pinchinat stands again, and somehow it’s better and cleaner,” Gwenn Mangine said. “There are fewer people. There is less mud.”

By late December, the Joy in Hope team had completely emptied one of Jacmel’s small tent cities and placed 19 families in homes of their own. In the coming year, the organization will work with each family on job support to help them earn rent money for next year.

“We exist to build families in Jacmel, Haiti,” Gwenn Mangine said. “Right now, we can think of no better way than to help the several thousand people in our own community who are really down and out.”

View full sizeCourtesy of Gwenn MangineNick and Gwenn Mangine with their 11 children, who range in age from 3 to 16.

In the year since the earthquake, the Mangine family has grown to include 11 children ranging from age 3 to 16. Nick and Gwenn Mangine plan to remain in Haiti to see as many as 20 children through adulthood.

Their blog is filled with images from the family life that is at the core of the Mangine’s mission. Nick Mangine’s mother, Beverly, visited in the summer, bringing soccer balls for the young boys and hosting a weeklong sewing clinic at the orphanage. A birthday party for 16-year-old Fritzie included a brightly frosted cake.

“Nearly all of my kids gave Fritzie gifts,” Gwenn Mangine wrote of the Sweet 16 celebration. “They saved up their own money and bought her candy, but they also wrapped up some of their own toys (and I am just going to be honest, they don’t have that many toys) and gave them to her. They were wrapped in random paper and strips of duct tape, glued shut cake boxes, whatever they could find.”

Looking forward, Gwenn Mangine said the dual role of missionary and humanitarian will be balanced with the needs of her family. “Our kids are growing and thriving,” she said. “They continue to test boundaries and act out at times, but they also are learning to grow in love and trust with us more each day.

“It’s harder than we ever imagined, but more fulfilling than we ever dreamed,” she said.